Thames Water gives polymer approval

With new sewerage adoption arrangements coming into effect on April 1st 2020, Thames Water has approved REHAU’s polypropylene (PP) pipe for use in new residential development sewer systems across their entire region.

Expanding on documentation released in October 2019 by Water UK, the April legislation outlines standards and best practice for sustainable sewer systems, and now includes regulations for polymer pipework. Thanks to approval from Thames Water to implement PP pipework alternatives, developers in the region can mitigate issues such as cracks and collapsing, root ingress, blockages and seal failure while complying with the new sewerage regulations.

These problems can impede performance and can result in catastrophic failure, significantly impacting residential areas by incurring cost and disruption from immediate emergency repair works. Yet with a higher impact resistance than clay and a service life of 100 years, sustainable polymer solutions that comply with regulations, such as REHAU’s PP pipe, will help to avoid such issues affecting sewer networks across the country long into the future.

Because of increasing demand for more residential properties to be available and need for minimal disruption from construction works, pressure on developers and utilities companies to complete compliant works to tight deadlines is increasing. As PP piping is up to 90% lighter and 30% faster to install than its concrete equivalent, it can be carried by two people without the need for heavy plant to be used.

“Demand on our sewer systems is set to grow exponentially as the UK’s housing stock increases, so naturally the infrastructure needs to be able to keep up,” says Franz Huelle, Head of Technical at REHAU Building Solutions. “Making the switch to polymer pipework will help utilities companies like Thames Water meet this increasing demand, due to their high performance, ease-of-installation and reasonable cost.”

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